Lorenz Janke 1Cor13 1Jn4 10.27.01
Wedding Tabitha Lorenz, Ryan Janke 10.27.2001
Texts: 1 Cor 13.1-13 1 John 4.9-12
love in the verses, love in the air, anything more romantic and lovely than a wedding on a beautiful day like today?
we love to talk about love at a time like this
we see Ryan and Tabitha standing before us, and we rejoice that they are IN love, in our pre-marriage planning, it was so lovely to hear each say how much they enjoy each other
yes, R and T IN love, but it wasn’t always this way…
for 5 years Tabitha refused to go out w/ Ryan despite his incredible persistence
what attracted Ryan? her sass and sarcasm
he moved to Mpls, she discovered she missed him
they finally go out, and “he wasn’t as repulsive as he was in HS”
finally got engaged… but ring went thru fire and flood before getting finalized – and now thru blizzard as well
… you been with me thru all the bad… you’re bad luck!
it took a while for that loving feeling to grow betw them!
even in marriage, couples realize, however, that people do not always feel like they are IN love
but we are not here today simply to acknowl the feeling that are RandT are in Love
we are here to witness a commitment to action, a promise to actually love one another
impt to make distinction between feeling of LUV and practice of LOVE
LUV as a feeling is okay, desirable BUT sometimes can lose that luvin feeling when that other seems awfully loud and annoying
LOVE is an action and it is this love that is described in 1 Cor 13:
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
A goal of Xn life in general and Xn couple and Xn family in particular is to have this love become natural but it always remains something we practice, choose to do: Love one another!
and now I am quoting from the 1 John passage you chose
hope you realize what an awesome command and challenge this is: love one another!
But know that w/ every command God gives, God also gives the way to make it possible to keep
Look at verse: Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
it is God’s love for you that makes it poss to love one another
in fact, it is God’s love that brings you to this day
and God will continue to be present with you in the midst of sickness and health and better and worse and loud and annoying! and all that the years may bring
today not only celebrate your marriage but also celebrate this love of God which is being manifested in your relationship.
And so throughout your marriage, I/we pray that you will indeed LUV each other but also LOVE one another just as God loves you. AMEN.